CMX Connect 2022 - A Year in Review

With the year coming to a close, we wanted to take some time and look back on what made CMX Connect 2022 such an incredible experience.And what better way to do that than by thanking our CMX Connect Hosts? Without them, none of this would have been possible.Our hosts are passionate community leaders committed to building their own CMX sub-communities to bring together community professionals from around the world to connect and share knowledge, experience, and more.We started this program in 2019 with 16 volunteers and 14 events in 9 countries. Since then, we've grown into an international movement with hundreds of hosts worldwide!That's right: This year has been all about reaching new heights, and we're here to tell you all about it! Here's a look back at what we've been up to this year:

Always Learning, Experimenting, and Improving!

With these events being unlike any other gathering, the impact was felt all over the globe. From Canada to Colombia, Brazil to Germany, Turkey to Lagos, Austria to Australia, Japan, India (and many more) —CMX Connect Chapters were everywhere. This year, CMX Connect has attracted more than 3,000 attendees from all over the world by holding regular events in 49 different chapters.And this is not all. Our virtual chapters, such as CMX Book Club and Education and Nonprofit Sector Chapters, have also been thriving! These chapters have had fascinating discussions all year, from swapping success stories to dissecting must-reads for community managers and interviewing and holding Q&As with authors like Adrian Speyer and David Siegel.In fact, it's all thanks to our CMX Connect hosts who have been working hard to share an enormous amount of knowledge and expertise with the attendees, helping them to grow their skill sets and become better community professionals in the process, as well as collaborating with some of the thought leaders such as David Spinks, Richard Millington, and more!

Transitioning from Virtual to In-Person

CMX Connect has experimented with different types of events throughout the year. In 2020, our once solely in-person event program became entirely virtual—a big change for us but an incredible success. As the restrictions on gatherings eased, we saw a resurgence of in-person events.But that doesn't mean virtual meetings are going away. In fact, this year, the majority of CMX Connect sessions were hosted virtually. This is because virtual events make it possible for people to connect across time zones, regions, and even internationally. At the same time, we know that more people are looking to connect in person in the future. That's why with the help of our excellent hosts, in the coming year, we will focus on how we can bring more in-person events to our community while also supporting those who prefer connecting online.We are working hard to add more chapters in different locations to make this possible. Keep an eye out over the next few months, there's bound to be a chapter near you!

CMX Connect 2022: By the numbers

The three goals of CMX Connect have remained unchanged:

1. Connect: Meet awesome people, and get to know your peers in the industry
2. Learn: Walk away with an actionable strategy you can implement into your work today
3. Advocate: Grow the community industry.

This year, the CMX Connect program exceeded all expectations. In 2022, the number of people who participated in CMX events was extremely impressive. It didn't include any CMX HQ events like our Summit or Global—it was powered solely by our incredible hosts who put their hearts into every event they host!Overall, during 2022 this program has:

• Hosted 153 events
• Had more than 8,000 community professionals RSVP to their events
• Checked in more than 3,000 people to their events

Highlights from Hosts

Every year, we ask our CMX Connect Hosts to tell us the highlight of their CMX Connect experience. Here’s what they had to say this time around:CMX Connect Tampa Bay, USA"CMX Connect Tampa Bay had a great launch, and although we've only been up and running since September, we've hosted four events (three in-person and one virtual, which was co-hosted with our Book Club Chapter where we interviewed Adrian Speyer about his book, The Accidental Community Manager). In the short time since our launch, we've been able to host events with pretty decent turnouts (our second event had 11 attendees) and have received support from community pros originally from the area, including Jenny Weigle and Derek Andersen."- Jeffrey Roe, CMX Connect Host Tampa Bay Chapter, USA

CMX Connect Chennai, India"We hosted our first in-person event on Dec 3rd. We received a warm welcome from the participants, and they are looking forward to more such events!"- Jay Elango, CMX Connect Host Chennai Chapter, India

CMX Connect Denver, USA“How can I name just one? The entire year was a highlight, getting up and running as a host, meeting colleagues in person at the Summit, speaking at the Summit, hosting wonderful local guests, thought leaders like Jono Bacon, an in-person fireside chat with Richard Millington, doing Voices from Ukraine with Blake Ethridge and meeting Yurii Lazaruk, looking forward to ending every week with Yurii and everyone who joins for Between Two Water Coolers (aka speed dating for CMs), meeting Luca and Jess, participating (and hopefully being helpful) on the Slack workspace. It's been an amazing year. I'm looking forward to doing it all again in 2023!”- Lori Goldman, CMX Connect Host Denver Chapter, USACMX Connect Colombia"We're creating big conversations about the power of communities in Latam! We just hosted our first hybrid event, which drew 19 speakers and 110 attendees from 8 countries and we awarded community professionals with awards at this unique gathering."- Juan Diego Castaño, CMX Connect Host Colombia Chapter

What’s next for CMX Connect?

We've been busy at CMX Connect, and we're not slowing down anytime soon. As we look ahead to 2023, we can't wait to see what the future holds.Our main goal for the coming year is to increase public awareness of the importance of community building. We intend to accomplish this goal by providing chapter leaders with the tools they need to grow their communities and increase positive impact in our industry. All chapter leaders will play an important role in their localities, sharing all the expertise, skills, and trends. To help them do this efficiently and at a larger scale, we'll provide resources to support that work.CMX Connect is an ever-evolving program. And We're always looking for new ways to help our community grow, connect, and learn from one another!If you haven't yet joined us at any of our events, we encourage you to check out our full list of events coming to a time zone near you!